Nintendo has won a patent infringement lawsuit filed by IA Labs that claimed the Wii Fit Balance Board infringed on one of its patents. IA Labs had sued Nintendo claiming that its Balance Board used with Wii Fit and other Wii software infringed on its rowing machine device (which attaches to a PC). The lawsuit was found to have no merit and was dismissed by a US District Court judge.

"We vigorously defend patent lawsuits when we firmly believe that we have not infringed another party's patent," he added.

Filing patent Infringement lawsuits seems to be a popular pastime amongst technology companies and firms that specialize in obtaining patents and suing others for infringing on them. Congress probably needs to think about some more reforms at this point...

I'm not so sure. They've had a few opportunities to make patent claims against Sony and going back farther Sega. Some of them were less obviously questionable than this, and many would have happened when patent trolling was the exclusive domain of big companies like Microsoft and Apple, and were regularly successful even when they were obviously questionable.

they REALLY need to get around to fixing the way patents are done or something.

because as it stands literally someone could patent pretty much anything and then sue over it. And in some cases thats literally the case. especially with these smaller patents that are leftovers from failed products or items so negligible that as soon as someone else nears it, they see an easy advertising moment and money.

This American Life did an episode on the patents and apparently there is someone out there who holds a patent on a method for thermally rejuvenating bread. Swear to God someone actually managed to get a patent for toast. Pretty sad.